Sundown
by ForgottenWhispersxo
Summary: ;Levy had come to realise that the evening sky was a warning to those standing beneath it. Sundown belonged to the dead. / Gajevy!Vampire AU / One-Shot


**Series: **Fairy Tail, Vampire AU.  
><strong>Type: <strong>One-Shot.  
><strong>Pairing: <strong>Gajevy/GaLe.  
><strong>Rating: <strong>T+.  
><strong>Triggers: <strong>Blood.  
><strong>Genre: <strong>Romance, Angst.

**A/N: **Inspired by blanania's Halloween art. Vampire Gajevy is hot, Grace. So don't worry that it was rushed, we love everything you do. 3

;_Levy had come to realise that the evening sky was a warning to those standing beneath it. Sundown belonged to the dead._

* * *

><p><em>Take me, I'm alive.<br>Never was a girl with a wicked mind  
>but everything looks better<br>when the **sun goes down**. _

* * *

><p>"Do you remember the first time we met?"<p>

Crimson eyes swept over her form, taking in her amused expression. She knew he was irritated. Every night she'd tell him the same story. And every night he'd snatch her into his arms and press their bloodied lips together with the hopes she wouldn't continue. This was a story he'd heard across centuries, a story that never altered or faded from the darkest corners of their minds.

For theirs is a bond bound in the deepest shade of red.

* * *

><p>With both hands stuffed deep in her coat pockets, Levy travelled the quiet streets of Magnolia Town with her head down and her eyes focused on the pavement. The air turned brisk as evening washed into night, street lights flickering on as she walked by them. It had been almost a year since the outbreak had started, almost a year since she'd seen anyone traverse the town at night. Every now and then desperate footsteps would race by her; footsteps of someone late getting home. Taking the next corner, Levy lifted her eyes to the many posters on the wall, newspaper clippings and faded photographs showing nothing but walls of black. The headlines had stopped coming now. People had grown tired of asking questions with no answers.<p>

Blood was smeared across the wall, splatters of crimson making some of the fine print unreadable. But Levy didn't need to read them to know what they said. They were all the same, each a different voice with the same concerns.

**Another girl found dead. **

Every picture was the same. Young, polished features with an angelic smile; each with short, blue hair that curled and twisted around their faces. A hand reached instinctively for the hair hanging over her shoulders and she dropped her gaze to the blue strands tangled around her fingers.

She'd never forgotten that day.

Her fate had been sealed in blood, right there at the foot of her parents grave. The mere thought made her ache from head to toe. Tearing the bloodied paper off the wall, Levy crumpled it within both hands and tossed it in the trash can behind her. She then proceeded towards the end of the street. Just as she had that night. Just as she did every night since then.

Sunlight spilled like streams of blood into the oncoming night, muddy shades of purple mixed in with the crimson streams. Levy had come to realise that the evening sky was a warning to those standing beneath it.

Sundown belonged to the dead.

* * *

><p>The first sign of the moon brought Levy to the creaking gate of Fairy Hills, an expanse of land dedicated to the deceased. Headstones went on for miles, many unvisited since the outbreak began. Since night was taken by the dead. There were figures watching from the shadows, figures that wouldn't dare approach her. Not here.<p>

She came to a stop before the grave of her parents. The only grave still home to beautiful flowers that grew in spite of these dark times. Crouching before the headstone, Levy brushed off the dust with her sleeve and clasped both hands together in front of her face. She could still remember their faces, remember the faces of her beloved parents gripped by a cruel fate. She'd been a little girl then. Just a child. But _his face_, his face hadn't changed since then. It looked just as she remembered it.

"Oi, this ain't the time to be moping."

Bumps rose on Levy's arms at the sound of his voice. Such a deep voice laced with menace could only belong to one man.

"This is a cemetery. People come here to mope," she replied, her voice dry. She didn't hear him move, but his fingers were on her arm a moment later, hoisting her off the ground. She staggered away when he released her, if only to catch a glimpse of his unchanging features. Crimson eyes, deader than the bodies buried beneath the soil, gripped her tight. She suffocated in their depths, flames burning at her insides.

"It took me years to find you, Shrimp. When I saw you standing there three months ago I thought I was seein' things."

"Maybe I didn't want to be found, Gajeel."

He laughed. "C'mon, Shrimp. You're smart enough to know when you've been beaten."

He released her from his gaze and stepped forward, leaves crunching beneath his boots. She stood perfectly still, waiting.

"Why haven't you killed me?" she feared the answer, feared his reasons. She didn't want to know, not really. She just wanted to leave. To stay in the comfort of her home with a book in her lap and never come here again.

"I do enough killin'," his response came easily, like a line from a script rehearsed for months, "Your blood tastes better than any other. You know that."

"I come here everyday, just as you ask. I come here and you do this to me," she rolled back her sleeve to expose the fading marks on her skin, just a small collection of many, "And then I leave. There must be others who taste like I do."

He stepped closer, the light of the moon making him glow. She'd have thought him handsome were it not for the threatening look in his eyes.

"You're lucky, Shrimp. Were it anybody else you'd be dead. But me? I like to play with my food until I'm-"

"_Levy_", she'd had enough, "My name is Levy!"

He snatched her throat with ease, lifting her until the toes of her shoes dragged across the ground. There it was, the subtle hint of sadness that mixed with the hostility in his eyes. For the past month he'd had that same look in his eyes, as though he'd seen something he didn't want to see. He held her gaze for some time, studying her, holding her steady. Her arms hung limp at her sides and she waited, waited for him to calm down.

"You're lucky I'm in a good mood," he huffed, dropping her on the ground with a thud. She stayed put where she was, wrapping her arms about herself as though she might fall to pieces in his shadow.

"You should have let me die with them," Levy cast her gaze to the gravestone beside her, "If you had no intention of killing me, why did you kill those girls before me?"

"To draw you out," he scoffed, as if the answer were obvious from the beginning, "I knew a little runt like you, at the age we met, wouldn't remember the specifics. So I chose to make you remember. You came here of your own free will, _Levy_, you came here to me. You called my name and I came."

He was right. Each time a girl died she was reminded of something she'd forgotten. Of the strong arms cradled around her tiny frame. But she still couldn't remember the details. She knew only his face. Only the crimson eyes glaring at her from the darkness, and the bloodied bodies of her parents, left to rot on the side of the road. She'd been so young, so fragile. But that exterior had cracked when they'd been reunited. The innocent Levy had been tarnished every day since the killing stopped three months ago. Since Gajeel Redfox had found his escaped victim from many years ago.

"The others, they haven't stopped killing. People don't leave their homes now for fear they'll drop dead in the street. What will you do when nothing is left? This world will become a desert of dried bones and then you'll starve to death and it'll serve you ri-"

He pulled her off the ground and thrust her back against the thick oak tree behind them, the leaves shuddering as they fell. With both arms pinned over her head, Levy squeezed her eyes to a close and waited for the inevitable. His lips travelled the curve of her shoulder and moved to her neck. It had been a while since he'd bitten her here. They felt so cold against her skin.

The worst part about these moments wasn't the pain. It was the twisted piece of her that liked it. The part of her body that longed for his touch and ached to be near him. Ever since the first night she'd come here, Levy had thought of no one else but him. His teeth cut through her neck a moment later and that same, sickening groan left her lips. The sting of warm blood made her shudder against the cold.

"You know what," he drew back, shoving her away, "I'm not hungry."

To her surprise, Gajeel turned his back and wandered away, both hands clenched in fists at his sides. She watched until he disappeared in the shadows, disbelief making her body tremble. Was he finished with her now? Could she go home? Would he try to kill her if she chose to leave? Taking a deep breath, Levy tried to still the rapid beat of her heart and stepped once more to the grave of her mother and father. Their names were starting to fade into the old stone.

"I'm sorry, you're both dead because of me. I think that's the case, or I wouldn't feel as guilty as I do."

Though the memories faded and flickered like an old television set passing from one show to the next, the glimmers were enough to show her the truth. Gajeel had killed her parents. And then he'd taken her away. But the rest was a blur. A blur that faded into the normal life she'd carried out since then. She'd attended school, made friends, learned to read in five different languages. She'd travelled to distant towns and studied their histories. So how did it come to this? Why was he here for her now? And what did he want? She sat there for some time, contemplating the meanings to questions she could never ask. And then she cried into her shaking palms.

* * *

><p>A while later, when her eyes burned with tears and her hands shook with the cold night air, a hand touched her bloodied shoulder. Big, strong calloused fingers gave it a squeeze.<p>

"What do you want, Gaj-"

"You're a pretty little thing ain't ya, since Redfox is done with you now how about becoming mine instead? Being out here in the night with that bleeding wound is more than invitation enough."

In a flash of fear, Levy spun and backed away from the unfamiliar face that hovered over her. Black eyes watched her retreat towards the path leading back to the front gate. He didn't make a move, but a thin tongue travelled the length of his bottom lip, making her stomach turn. She panicked. Both legs were moving down the path a moment later, her feet kicking dust along behind her. She rushed through the open gate and out into the dark street, knowing no one would care if she screamed. She wasn't certain she could scream, the fear kept her voice still.

Levy knew he'd catch her. Their kind moved in blurs; she'd blink and he'd be there. Waiting. Making her way into the abandoned library at the end of the street, Levy made herself comfortable between two of the bookshelves, her back pressed against the binds of books she'd read countless times. Dust swirled in the air, making her heave and cough. He'd find her here. The sickening thud of her heart would lead him to her, just as it pulled Gajeel to her three months ago.

When the door creaked open, more than a single set of footsteps entered in a line. She could see a collection of shadows gathering on the wooden floorboards, at least four from what she could tell. With a hand over her mouth, Levy fought to hold her breath and waited.

"Let's split up."

A whimper filled the creases of her palm and her knees turned to elastic beneath her, folding beneath her weight. She fell to her knees in fear, a shadow tumbling over her a second later. She was being dragged out of the aisle soon after, and tossed at the feet of another vampire. He leaned down to drag a bony finger along her cheek, the tip of his nail drawing blood to the surface of her skin. She pulled away instinctively, but he grasped her jaw with his hand and forced her eyes into his. The man looking down on her seemed older than the others, his eyes, too, were black.

"We're going to be generous since you were Gajeel's girl and all," his voice came out in a raspy whisper, "All four of us are going to dig in at the same time, see? It'll be over in the blink of an eye. Aren't you grateful for our mercy, Little Girl?"

There was something about the way he closed in on her that made her mind stretch back to the night her parents died. There was something there, threatening to break free. The scream bubbling in her throat was silenced when a set of fangs sunk into her neck where Gajeel's had been. A moment later she was on her back, both arms spread on either side of her, two sets of teeth taking hold of each. And the last moved to her right leg, making himself comfortable against her thigh. Her voice was lost to the depths of her throat and her vision was beginning to fade already. Gajeel had taken a lot of blood the night before. She was going to die here.

When her eyelids fell closed visions swept over her mind like water, dragging her into their depths. She could see her mother's from where she stood, shaking. And a group of unfamiliar faces, demonic thirst prominent in their eyes, closed in around her. She stepped through a puddle of her mother's blood only to tumble back over her father, tiny hands clutching at the back of her shirt when she landed. They couldn't save her now. Even then she'd known that.

And then he showed up. Crimson eyes flashing in rage as he tore through the group of vampires to where she was sitting, trembling and crying for her loved ones. They'd stepped away when he'd approached and she'd watched in fear as he'd stood over her. He'd saved her._  
><em>

And then he'd set her outside a small house she'd lived in as a child, with the kind woman who'd taken her in. His hands were so gentle against her shoulders. She'd begged him not to go, screaming and crying the name of the man who would then leave.

_I don't eat kids,_ he'd said, So when _yer older, Shrimp, I'll come to collect. Be a good girl until then, ya hear? And keep that blood nice an' healthy. No one's to take even a sip until I come back. _

She hadn't understood him then. And she'd cried until his name had faded from her memory, and his kind expression had turned to malice in her mind. She'd known him only as a monster.

A scream tore up and out of Levy's throat in her final struggle. His name followed soon after, again and again, a chant of desperation. Each laughed at her futile cries, the sounds vibrating across her skin.

The door crashed open a second later and the pain in her thigh was alleviated. Through the haze of her vision she thought she saw him standing there, crimson eyes glaring down, beautiful like the evening sky.

And then darkness had swept over her.

* * *

><p>"This is my favourite time of day," Levy whispered, gazing up at the sunset, "It's so pretty, isn't it?"<p>

Gajeel grunted beside her and balanced his chin in his palm, his eyes fixed on the side of her face. Drawing her knees against her chest, Levy marvelled in the view of a prospering Magnolia Town, the streets alive with children's laughter. The street lamps came on all at once, illuminating the streets. There hadn't been a single unncessary death since that day.

"Don't you think it's pretty, Gajeel?"

"It's alright," he mumbled, shifting his gaze elsewhere, "I guess."

"Do you remember what you said to me back then?"

"Huh? When?"

"When I woke up, in the library. Don't tell me you've forgotten."

He rolled his eyes and balanced both hands behind him, leaning back to look directly at her face. Her still heart clenched tightly within her chest.

"You said that sundown is your favourite time of the day. Not because you're able to step out into the world, but because you knew I'd be there, waiting for you. You told me that I was a meal once, and nothing more. But now you hated how you felt about me, and that you lo-"

He silenced her with a kiss, his lips hot and gentle against hers. The warmth radiated through their bodies, giving them a glimmer of life. Gajeel's warmth was well worth the change.

"Do I need to remind you who I am, Miss McGarden?"

His threat made her lips curl into a smile. "That's Mrs. Redfox, to you."

He snorted. "You should've never been a monster, an' it's all my fault."

Levy shuffled closer to him, leaning her head against his shoulder. The sun disappeared behind a thick trail of clouds, casting darkness over the hilltops.

"I don't blame you for what you did. I expected to die that day and I did, though not in the way I'd expected. Being a vampire isn't so bad now that I don't feel compelled to kill on impulse. I can feed in moderation. People don't have to die."

He grimaced. Gajeel didn't like the thought of Levy killing. He'd done everything in his power to stop her, and that's when he'd realised he couldn't live the way he used to any more. She'd changed him.

"I couldn't let you die. You're mine," he huffed.

She grinned. "Hey, Gajeel?"

"What?"

"Every day from now on, when the moon comes out, I'm going to tell the story of how we met and you're going to listen to every word. It's a fitting punishment, don't you think?"

He shook his head, "That it?"

"No," she tilted her head to press her lips against his neck, "And when I finish the story, you're going to remind me why you did it."

He had her pinned on the ground a moment later, his large form hovering over her beneath the light of the moon. With their fingers laced together, Levy watched as the moon returned to her line of vision behind him, and welcomed the warmth of his lips against her own.

"No way," he complained, "I have a reputation, ya know."

She giggled, flipping them over so that she straddled his waist. He didn't struggle beneath her, instead resting both hands at the back of his head. The way he looked at her hadn't changed since they'd been reunited. That same cold, distant glare with a flicker of sadness, sadness she recognised to be a painful touch of love.

"Do we have a deal?"

Gajeel heaved a sigh beneath her, both hands lifting to the back of her neck. When her lips crashed against his this time he mumbled something quiet and gentle. Words that resonated through her dead body, igniting it with the fire of love and life.

_I love you. _


End file.
